(Part 1)

JBTM Paul D. Wegner
90
(1QpHab), dated to the latter half of the first century BC, uses a pesher hermeneutic to
apply the biblical text to their time period. First a portion of the Hebrew text is given (e.g.,
Hab 1:4bc: “And justice does not emerge as the winner, for the evildoer accosts the upright
man”), then it had the word pesher (Lit. “its interpretation”) followed by an interpretation
and a direct application of the Hebrew text to their time (e.g., “the evildoer is the Wicked
Priest and the upright man is the Teacher of Righteousness”). 2
We would argue that these types of hermeneutics are not valid to use unless a passage
specifically claims to employ these forms; for example, Paul states that he makes use of an
allegory in Gal 4:24 and a type in Rom 5:14, but these are rare occasions. The far better way
to bring over the application of OT texts to people today is by finding “timeless principles”
that carry over into our historical context.
Google dictionary defines a principle as “a fundamental truth or proposition that
serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.” 3 If
a principle is a “fundamental truth or proposition,” then it will likely be just as true in the
OT time period as it is today. Our goal, then, in applying the OT is to bring out timeless
principles that are true throughout history. Walter C. Kaiser says it like this: “The interpreter
of the Bible is not only responsible to comment on the truth-assertions or meanings of the
human author of Scripture (who after all was the one who stood in the counsel of God
to obtain his revelation in the first place), but the interpreter must also go on to derive
textually authenticated principles from those same Biblical texts.” 4 We agree with Kaiser
that these principles can only be truly authoritative for us today if they are grounded in the
meaning of the text and it is equally true that we cannot simply teach what an OT passage
is saying without finding legitimate principles therein that apply to us today. Both aspects
are crucial for biblical preaching. If we only do the former and teach only what the prophet
had to say to the people of his time, we will have dry, dusty history that has little application
to modern life. And if we only do the latter, we will have motivational speaking with little
authority from God’s word. We can achieve a careful balance between the meaning of the
prophetical narrative and an insightful application that brings Scripture to bear on our lives
by utilizing the fundamental principles of biblical hermeneutics.
²See Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated, trans. W. G. E. Watson (Leiden:
Brill, 1994), 198.
³“Principle,”accessedJune29,2015,https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chromeinstant&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS620US620&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=principle.
⁴Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., “The Principlizing Method,” n.p. (cited 29 June 2015). Online: http://
zondervanacademic.com/blog/moving_beyond/